A Little Affirming Feeling

My wife threw me a surprise birthday party last night. I was FLOORED. Didn’t have a clue. But I have a mini story that runs throughout the night that I find very pertinent to my fitness and self-improvement efforts.

We ate dinner at a local Chinese restaurant, which gave friends time to prepare our house for the surprise. I am not really one for spiritual things. I try, but they rarely take. My only exception? I believe fortune cookies. I wholeheartedly accept what they’re telling me.

This one told me that my efforts and my beliefs were going to have a surprising effect on everyone in my life.

So, here we are at the surprise party. I’m so blown away, and just thrilled that everyone gathered together to see me. But then looking around, there were three guests in attendance who were directly related to my recent efforts. One was the woman who inspired my wife and I to start these lifestyle changes. Her success came with the same level of skepticism that I usually put on so-called diet plans. So, I figured that if she could do it, so could I. The other two were people who’ve said to me that they saw our success and felt motivated themselves.

Several times, when people ask me about what I did to lose 50 pounds so far, they seem to immediately lose interest when I tell them that it’s through the stuff everyone hates to do: learn about nutrition, eat right, exercise daily, and drink tons of water. So, it was really nice to have the opposite feeling when in the presence of these people. It’s nice to see friends encouraging each other to resume their relationship with their body and their health.

And the surprise party was the coolest thing that’s happened to me in ages. Thanks, everyone.